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Topic: Spiritual Gifts
Our Charismatic Thread
The Charismatic thread helps us understand and delve into how the Holy Spirit works. In this sermon, Greg talks about the life of William Seymour and how the gifts of the Spirit are to be used today, in addition to counter-cultural Charismatic perspectives on race and gender that were a part of the movement from the beginning. Read More
God Wants To Talk
In the Bible, prophecy refers to much more than simply foretelling events of the future. According to 2 Peter 1:21 any time the Holy Spirit uses a person to speak the truth it is considered prophecy. Read More
Get Real
In our culture celebrity worship is rampant. Because of their money, talent, and the attention they receive, many of us live through pop icons. Sadly, this same mentality creeps into the church. We can be tempted to elevate church leaders above everyone else and think that the Kingdom happens through them alone. Their prayers count more. Their words are more powerful. Their service is more significant. Jesus came to destroy this thinking! Read More
Experiencing the Meaningful Life
Meaning and purpose in life. It is a longing and yearning that we all have. We want to make a difference and leave a mark in this world. The problem is that we don’t believe we are beautiful. To experience meaning in this life requires believing that God has wonderfully and beautifully made us. As we recognize our beauty we are then able to share this beauty with others. Read More
The Kingdom Challenge
In July, Annie shared with us how God gives each of us a unique design and gifts to further the Kingdom of God. This week she was back to share a little more about what God’s “Kingdom Challenge” for us involves. The text Annie used was I Peter chapters 3 and 4 where the author is writing to Christians in Asia Minor who are suffering under intense resistance from their culture. Read More
The Right Context for Redemptive Community
This week Associate Pastor Dwayne Polk continued his discussion of community by taking a close look at the powerful biblical metaphor of the Church as the Body of Christ. He started off by marveling at the amazing work of God in creating a human being. Our bodies and their various features are truly miraculous. Not only did God have an amazing plan for the human body, God has an amazing plan for the Church, the spiritual body of Christ, through which God intends to accomplish the reign of God on Earth. Read More
What Was I Born to Do?
Annie shared passionately that we each need to understand our unique Kingdom purpose. She reminded us of Greg’s message last week and the fact that Mary’s willing spirit was the primary qualification God needed from her to do an amazing thing in the world. This same thing, our willingness, will determine how God is able to use us too. God designed us with a very specific idea in mind and, and finding out what God designed us to do is a personal process of discovery. Annie ended her sermon by reading The Tale of Three Trees retold by Angela Elwell Hunt and challenged us to be willing like Mary was, even if we feel like “nobody from nowhereville”. Read More
Ministers Behind the Ministry
This week we got a glimpse at the real Woodland Hills Church! The Body of Christ is made up of all the followers of Christ, not just the church staff. A healthy body makes efficient use of all its parts. The video we saw showed much more of our actual church body than we usually get to see. Greg referred us to two main texts to support this idea that church is about the people, not the building or just the leadership. Read More
